One man\’s year-long journey through the world of baseball

After a long hiatus, I’m poking my head in here to deliver this tidbit:

The freaking Netherlands just beat the Cuban National Team in an IBAF world cup game. Against the unstoppable force of pitchers Deigomar Markwell and David Bergman, Yuliesky Gourriel went 0-for-4. Frederich Cepeda went 1-for-3. Yoandry Urgelles went 0-for-3. The best team in international competition managed just 5 hits, none of them going for extra bases.

The Netherlands Lineup, meanwhile, comprised mostly of guys in their late-20s who will never play in the states (Rick Vanden Hurk isn’t on the world cup roster and Greg Halman, while on the team, didn’t play), managed 10 hits to score 2 runs.

The win gave the Netherlands a 5-2 record and propelled them into the quarterfinals, knocking Canada out of the tournament in the process.

The boxscore is available at the IBAF website (http://www.baseball.ch/), or at baseballdecuba.com. There should be streaming video on both sites as well.

About

I’m currently working on a year-long research project on the globalization of baseball, courtesy of the Thomas J. Watson Foundation. Over the next 12 months, my project will take me to the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Australia, Puerto Rico, Okinawa, and Venezuela, and I decided to set up this blog to share some of the things I pick up along the way.